The first of the late December preorders has arrived. Since it’s now January 2024, I’m counting this special set of re-released older figures of Mechagodzilla 93, Fire Rodan and Garuda for this year.
Mechagodzilla 93 has been released twice before, first by itself, then as a set with the Garuda to turn him into Super Mechagodzilla. Fire Rodan had one previous release as well, that came with 2 beams (one for Rodan, one for Godzilla), 3 different stands (for the beams and to hold up the star pterodactyl), and a battle damaged Mechagodzilla head, for the scene where Rodan pokes one of its eyes out. This newest set has both robot and kaiju painted with updated colors, with stands and accessories. Mechagodzilla is shinier than the prior releases, with a bluish tint, and Rodan is a darker red, with lighter highlights on the neck, belly and ends of its wings, lightning vein patterns on the membranes of its wings, and translucent yellow spikes on its head and back.
Speaking of those accessories, this one includes 2 stands; one for the Garuda, the other to hold up Fire Rodan in flight, an extra head part to give Mechagodzilla battle damaged eyes, an extra set of hands, several parts to attach the Garuda to his back and turn him into Super Mechagodzilla, an extra torso piece with open barrel to fire his Plasma Grenade beam, and 2 bendy wire shock anchors that shoot out from the robot’s arms and blast Godzilla with energy attacks. All the accessories are easy to swap out and pretty cool, with the exception of the shock anchors, which are pretty much useless. They barely clip into the tiny port holes on Mechagodzilla’s arms, and don’t really stay in. Cool idea, bad execution.
The articulation for Mechagodzilla includes hinged mouth, his head that’s on a swivel that allows it to spin fully around, and be pulled out so his head can raise all the way up. When the head is turned upwards, the small spikes on his neck retract, allowing you to push the neck back in for flight poses. His shoulders and thighs are on ball joints, he has double jointed elbows and knees, peg swivel wrists, upper torso ball joint, a segmented tail that can be straightened out a bit, and ball jointed ankles with hinged toes. The two firing cannons on the Garuda can swivel forward 90 degrees, and the small cockpit on top can slide to the front. For Rodan, his head and neck are on several ball joints, the beak opens and closes, ball jointed shoulders and thighs, his wings are hinged at two places in the middle, allowing them to fold in, his wing claws are on a swivel, single jointed knees, ball jointed ankles and a multi-segmented tail. All of his joints are solid, nothing pops out (the older Fire Rodan I own has a tail segment that can pop off if bent too far). Mechagodzilla’s engineering is solid as well.
One interesting side note about Mechagodzilla 1993. His design was originally supposed to be different, comprised of 3 separate vehicles (including another version of the Garuda) that came together and formed a complete robot, like a Transformer. This version of Mecha G is shown on Ohrai Noriyoshi’s poster artwork for the film. I own that original concept Mechagodzilla figure that was done by S.H. MonsterArts / Chokogin. In the end, they went with a different design that more resembles the Godzilla 93 suit.
Overall, this set is pretty sweet. You get 2 kaiju, a flying vehicle, and a decent amount of extras. No beams are included, but since I own the original Fire Rodan, I have all those accessories that I can use. The new paint schemes on both Rodan and Mechagodzilla are very nice, and since I don’t own this version of Mecha G, this release was worth it. Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla 1993 is one of the better Heisei films, especially the climax, where a dying Rodan gives his remaining life energy to Godzilla, reviving him and causing him to completely destroy Mechagodzilla with a swirling red spiral beam. The only thing about that film that I found unrealistic was that everyone who was piloting Mechagodzilla miraculously survived, including Miki Saegusa, the psychic fan favorite that I honestly never cared for. But anyway, with this set, now I own all the kaiju from that flick. 2024 has begun on a high note.
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